Repair and Reuse — Recycle Later

The act of repairing things (or having them repaired by others) has gone woefully out of fashion. It just doesn’t seem to pay anymore. Planned obsolescence and the changed economics brought about by globalization have made buying replacements too cheap and easy.

The result? A throwaway culture that dumps perfectly good resources only to mine the planet for more.

Even when we recycle the resources, we are still engaged in unnecessary waste, as new resources are needed to turn the recycled ones into new products. Of course, recycling is better than disposal, but not good enough when affordable repair is an option.

However, the times, they may be a-changing. Self-help repair groups have sprung up in the Netherlands and American towns like Brooklyn.

Interested in joining the new (old) wave? Read The 4th R: REPAIR for tips on buying more fixable stuff and resources on do-it-yourself repair.

I heard that in some European countries manufacturers are required to take back their broken and old products so that they can recycle the components. Do you know if this is true? Wouldn’t it be great if the USA started to make manufacturers do the same thing? Maybe then companies would be a bit more concerned with making products that are lasting, or at least more affordable and repairable.

I believe that some European countries and perhaps the EU as well, have some kind of producer responsibility laws, though I don’t know how extensive they are. If I find any details, I’ll post them here. It certainly would be great if we had something like that here.

My band –The Muttering Guppies, wrote a song about this topic. It’s called “Piece of _sh____”.Here’s a sample lyric, “Planned obsolescence it’s the basis of the economy, buy something you think will last and then bury it under a tree.”

It’s very interesting that your family’s experience of the 60s was NOT to repair things, because where I grew up, the attitude was quite different. Mothers knew how to sew and mend things, and fathers knew how to repair basic stuff. And there were shops to go to so that you could repair your toaster. People didn’t throw things out after a couple of years.

That’s why this article is excellent – it is very timely. But my issue is that everyone is obsessed with iCrap, which is the most built-in of built-in obsolescence. Consumers need to demand products that last for years and don’t “need” to be upgraded every six months. Electronics are too dangerous to be considered disposable when broken.

I took my broken floor lamp over to the vacuum repair job, just to get some advice. The arm of the lamp was broken, although everything else worked. The vacuum repairman thought, “You could tape the heck out of it…” Then he just stared at it for a while and said, “Maybe plumbing clips would work.” So, I found myself at the hardware store, looking for plumbing clips—whatever plumbing clips are.”

What do you know? My lamp is in one piece now, secured by a couple plumbing clips, for maybe $5.00. I avoided trashing the lamp, and saved a little money too.

ABOUT

A green living columnist for environmental organizations in her spare time, Sheryl Eisenberg wrote This Green Life for NRDC from 2004-2014 and previously wrote Greentips for the Union of Concerned Scientists. In her "real" life, she designs websites with her firm Mixit Creative for environmental groups and other non-profits and small businesses.